State Legislature and Governor Brown Take Action on Housing Items
In July of this year, the Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS(R) (SDAR) and San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce released the "Housing Scorecard", which highlighted our regions housing deficiency through a city-by-city housing needs assessment. The study helped drive a housing package - expected to be the first of many - through the San Diego City Council. But the housing crisis is not unique to our region and remains a priority issue at the state and even federal levels of government. In California alone, housing officials estimate the state needs approximately 180,000 new housing units per year to keep up with demand, but is developing less than half that amount.
Recently, on September 29, Governor Brown was joined by state legislators as he signed into law a package of state bills aimed at addressing, at least to some degree, our housing crisis. Assemblymembers Todd Gloria (AD 78) and Brian Maienschein (AD 77) joined SDAR and the Housing You Matters Coalition to discuss the state housing package.
Among the bills discussed and that were recently signed into law include:
SB 2 (Atkins) Recording Tax - SB 2 imposes a $75 per document recording fee on every real estate transaction, but does not include sales transaction. The fee is capped at $225 per transaction. The measure is expected to raise $250 million annually to finance construction of affordable housing. Read more
Earlier versions of this proposal included fees on real estate sales transactions, which were ultimately removed from the bill through lengthy appeals by stakeholder in the real estate industry, including SDAR members. The California Association of REALTORS(R) (C.A.R.) eventually supported this bill "because the fee will not burden home purchase transactions and dedicates 20 percent of the funding for affordable workforce housing and 70 percent to local governments for housing."
SB 3 (Beall) Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond - SB 3 would place on the 2018 ballot a $4 billion bond of which $3 billion would be reserved for low-income housing developments and $1 billion set aside for veteran housing assistance. With the Governor's signature, the bill is set to appear on the ballot next year. Read more
SB 35 (Weiner) Streamlining Affordable Housing Production - In an attempt to address the all-too-common issue of localities failing to develop their allotment of new housing, SB 35 establishes a "by-right" approval process for infill developments in regions where the locality falls short of meeting their Regional Housing Needs Assessment goals. Read more
C.A.R. supported SB 35 because "it is a valuable solution to fix California's housing crisis by increasing supply."
SB 167 (Skinner) Housing Accountability Act - This bill will impose fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 per unit on local agencies who disapprove housing projects without demonstrating a preponderence of evidence the project would have an adverse impact on public health or safety. Read more
A complete list of the state housing bills supported by C.A.R. can be found here.
Related Articles
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-housing-legislation-signed-20170929-htmlstory.html
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article175541676.html
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-pol-ca-housing-supply/